The Hardest Aftermath
by XBrain130
Summary: Disembowelment. Third Impact. Two of most traumatic things you can experience. However, Shinji and Asuka survived them, and now have to deal with them, and with each other. (Short fic based on a series of drawings I made available on DA and Tumblr. Slight, angsty Asushin.)


**Hello people. Here's little fic I have meaning to write in the last days after watching EoE. It's my take about what happened right after the last scene.**

 **Right after, as in the next minutes.**

 **No, I don't know if I'll continue it. I'm not sure if I'm good enough to handle writing this kind of post-apocalyptic situation.**

 **As I mentioned in the summary, this fic was inspired by 3 drawings I did myself and that you can see on DeviantART and Tumblr (my username is the same as here).**

 **Hope you like this.**

* * *

 _ **«Kimochi warui.»**_

Shinji vainly tried to hold back his tears. It was real. She was alive.

The gentle gesture and the venomous words could only mean one thing: she was really her.

Asuka didn't move as she stared at him, apparently emotionless, with her good eye. Inside she was a tiny bit happy that she was back into one piece again, but she also felt immensely drained and unable to do much.

 _ **[End]**_

However, she flinched as he suddenly buried his face in her right shoulder, holding her arms. «Please Asuka...» he pleaded, sobbing and trembling. «Call me an idiot... just like old times...»

She didn't react initially, confused that he was asking that of all things. Nonetheless, she was quite willing to go with that request. «I hate you so much... you giant _idiot_...» she said tiredly, unable to conjure as much venom as she wanted.

However, he appeared to smile a little and squeezed her slightly. «Thank you.»

Now there were no doubts left in his mind. She was the real, harsh Asuka; this was the real, painful life.

It worked.

«I meant it.» she then added. She also started shifting. «Can you move away now? Our positions are starting to sore me.» she gritted as she grabbed his sleeve with her good arm and yanked him aside.

Making resistance didn't even occur to Shinji's mind, so due her gesture he awkwardly tumbled aside. He quickly got up again though, smiling as he wiped his tears. He felt that was the least he deserved.

«If you need me, I'm gonna question my life choices back there.» he murmured as he made a few steps behind her and sat down on the sand, turning his back to the girl.

Asuka laid on the beach for what seemed like fifteen minutes, waiting to recover enough energy for at least getting up and walking around. Yet despite how much tired she was, she couldn't sleep. Maybe... she was afraid of letting her vision go black again.

Trying to shake away the ominous feeling, she noticed that Shinji has been completely quiet since he moved. Of course that was normal for him, but after a while the lone sounds of the red waves was starting to drive her mad. At least, hoping that she wasn't already gone completely crazy after being mind-raped and physically feeling what being eaten alive is like, and she couldn't tell.

What it meant was that she needed to talk, so shaking away creepy thoughts once again, she gathered all of her strength, and finally stood up on her legs. A little bit of nausea hit her.

Must be resurrection sickness.

Focusing on moving her legs covered by the sticky outfit, Asuka managed to make the few steps that separated her from Shinji, who was either too lost in thought to notice her or ignoring her. Experience suggested her to not forsake the former option.

Sitting back-to-back a few inches to him, she placed her bandaged hand next to his one and looked at the landscape.

Red sea, a giant white version of Rei's bisected head, some of her killers impaled in a crucified position... not really as nice as the green vegetation extending until the blue sea. At least the latter thing gave her a feeling of satisfaction.

She turned again to the boy. Not a reaction.

Sighing, she carefully moved her hand over his as she looked at the blood-stained moon, now slowly beginning to set.

 _ **[Alone]**_

«Asuka...?»

Finally something.

«What?»

«Do-do you still hate me?»

Dear boy, saying that her feelings for you were still a confusing mess was an understatement.

«Yes.»

«The why you're holding my hand?»

Because he was the only other solid human she knew and she needed to do something to pass time?

«Because shut up.»

Wait, what. Asuka mentally slapped herself. Here we go, she wanted to interact seriously with him but she had fallen in her old ways.

As much "a few days or weeks ago" could be defined as "old". Probably their minds registered the Third Impact as something too great to possibly have occurred in one day.

The girl sighed. «Well... I think I hated you because you seemed like a spineless coward who couldn't even defend himself from a girl's insults. I guess I just kept going until I broke the last straw and you... lashed back fatally.» Both teens felt a shiver run through their spines as they recalled him strangling her when she rejected him in that weird... vision... thing.

Gingerly she moved her hand away from his.

«Though even if have been too heavy-handed with you, at least you could have tried to do things by yourself instead of always begging others for help. Not to mention that you hardly helped others yourself.» she added with an hint of annoyance.

Shinji still didn't look at her as his hand clenched, causing the fingertips to dig into the sand.

«Also... don't you dare doing creepy things like... _that..._ ever again.» she realized that she said that loudly only a second after, and when she did she almost nauseated at the image that re-emerged in her mind.

Suddenly Shinji started breathing deeply. After a few seconds she realized he was holding back from crying again. «It was a moment of weakness, okay?» he gritted. «Don't you think I regret it with all of my being? That I regret everything I did up until now with all of my being?! Not everyone can be as strong as you.»

Asuka whipped her head back. Suddenly she forgot her own resolution to be more tolerating with him. «So only because I can kick your ass all over the place you think I don't have my own problems? My own regrets?! _My own self-hating_?!» she growled.

Shinji finally mustered up the courage to look at her sideways.

«Surprised? I regret many of the thing I did as well! But just because I can hide the dirt of my conscience better than you doesn't mean it isn't as bad as yours!» she said feral, glaring at him with a disgusted expression.

Shinji half-turned towards her. «Then why don't you tell me how to hide it that good?» he asked back gnashing.

«YOU... MORON! Can't you understand that it isn't something you can learn from others?! You have to feel better _by yourself_! Not everyone is willing to deal with being sappy to you all the time!» she snarled, but still remaining unnervingly composed for her usual self. «You can't expect some stupid "guardian angel who protects you from all harm and magically makes you eternally happy" crap!»

Shinji cringed at the last line, which was particularly heart-piercing to him.

«Fine! Just stop yelling me at least!» he barked back at her.

Asuka took in a breath as she calmed down, before she turned her back to him.

«I think we both need a bit of sleep now.» Shinji muttered with a exasperated tone. «It's probably better if we sort through our problems later.»

«For once I agree with you, id... gkh..» Asuka stopped mid-word for some reason. He didn't care though.

They both laid on the sand, their backs turned to each other.

Silence fell over them as they drifted towards sleep.

«Even after all the shit we went through we still argue like we are about to kill each other, don't we?» she whispered sadly.

«Yeah...» she replied softly with what sounded like guilt.

The silence retuned again after the short break, and the last solid humans slipped in the dark world of slumber.

 **. . .**

Asuka's blue eye opened widely all of sudden, her body shaking.

White skins. Red lips. Mutilated bodies. Circling in the sky like vultures.

Feasting on her _own bowels_.

She looked at her right arm, which was still trembling strongly even though it was calming down.

She remembers her last seconds. The unbearable, overwhelming sensation of her limb neatly and perfectly sliced in two.

Even thought it was somehow seamed back into one, how could she move it?

She tried to concentrate on it and how it felt.

It tingled very much, especially when she moved it, to the point of almost-but-not-quite chronic pain.

Her left eye was similar. She felt it move when she looked aside, but it sent her brain a very little twinge every time she did so.

 ** _[You Can (Not) Rest Peacefully]_**

Then she heard him making weird noises in his sleep. They almost sounded like moans of pain.

«I-it's...»

Asuka freezes as he starts babbling.

«It's all my fault...»

Now he was sobbing.

She could feel her stomach clenching. She always did was heavily assertive towards him, but this time hearing him actually cry again after all of this disturbed her for some reason.

«Shinji...» she whispered. She felt so conflicted, she didn't know what to do.

 _Could that be the same feeling he had always experienced...?_

Closing her eyes shut, she tried to fall asleep again.

Today was the first day of a new era. They needed to be fully rested.


End file.
